SWINDON Storm kick off their British American Football Association season this weekend as they travel to Hastings Conquerors in Southern Football Conference Division Two South.

Storm and Hastings are in the five team division alongside Bournemouth Bobcat, Jurassic Coast Raptors and London Blitz B.

Storm, who last summer dominated the Conquerors 84-0, will hope to get their season off to a flying start away in Sussex and give their new quarterback Harry Powell some confidence in his debut season playing contact football.

The 19-year-old former flag football player will lead the offensive line, and defensive coordinator Rich Westley is optimistic Powell will improve quickly as Storm look to make a run to the play-offs.

DC Westley said: “Our new quarterback (Harry) is much more of a passing threat than we’ve had previously and he’s still very new.

“He’s come from playing the non-contact form of American football – flag football – so his training is based on having pads on and facing people who can make contact.

“His development is going really well so far, and we have high hopes for him.”

Storm travel to Hastings on opening weekend hopeful that they will be able to produce a repeat of last season’s total domination.

But Westley is wary of the potential dangers their hosts may now have and will be warning his players to maintain their highest levels of performance throughout.

He said: “We had good results against them last season, so it seems like it should be a good start, however you never know what happens during an off-season in terms of recruitment, changes in playbooks and things like that.

“We still have to take it seriously, play with intensity and make sure that our new guys, who haven’t had a competitive match yet, are up to speed so we can meet the challenge head on and take the game to them.

“We’ve made some changes to the playbook (on the defensive side of the ball) which will hopefully make us a bit more adaptable to situations and help us bring different threats from different sides of the pitch.

“Hopefully, that will make it more exciting to watch and, from a coordinator perspective, it will make it more exciting to call plays as well.

“We’ve recruited well and we’ve got some good players in the building, so we’re raring to go.”